The Art of the Pause: Why Effective Writing Requires Unplugged Thinking

I asked Google Gemini, "Write a blog post for WORDS ON THE LINE by Philip Vassallo."  In less than five seconds, it replied, "Here is a draft for a new blog post tailored to the tone and philosophy of your blog." After the line break below, I have left intact the formatting and paragraphing, and I have not changed a word or punctuation mark of this post, including the title.

I have done this thought experiment for three reasons: First, I was curious about AI'sselection of content. Here I would give it a C because I have discussed the points it mentions in so many words repeatedly over the past 22 years of writing WORDS ON THE LINE. Second, I was interested in seeing how close AI comes to imitating my sense of structure (I would give it an A, as I have been teaching this organization strategy for decades) and my approach to style (here it gets a B since I would be more concise). Third, and most important, I wanted to know if AI could add value to WORDS ON THE LINE for my readers. To this point, I am undecided. But I promise not to fade away in the face of AI. To be continued.

The AI Revolution in Education, Part 3: Further Suggestions

No single policy will resolve the AI challenge in education. As technology changes, educators will have to change with it. Here are six evergreen practices that should be at the heart of instruction with AI.

1. Explain  the purpose of every assignment. If students are to practice independent writing, unrestricted AI assistance may defeat the purpose. If they are evaluating arguments, AI might provide useful material to critique.
2. Require students to disclose their AI use. This practice is no different from requiring students to cite their sources. In using AI, what did they request, accept, reject, or revise? Making AI use visible turns it from a hidden shortcut into an accountable part of the learning process.
3. Make AI itself an object of study. Give students an AI-generated response and ask them to find its factual, logical, or stylistic weaknesses. Through such an exercise, students can learn an important lesson: fluent language is not necessarily reliable knowledge.
4. Vary assessments. Discussions, presentations, drafts, demonstrations, reflections, collaborative work, in-class writing, and other teaching modes can provide evidence that a final product alone cannot.
5. Invest in teacher learning. Teachers need training to cultivate their AI knowledge, ethical understanding, pedagogical skills, and continuing professional competence. 
6. Create thinking spaces. The education system should place independent thinking at the heart of all learning. If students are to think for themselves, they must have facilitators ushering them into spaces, physical and otherwise, where AI answers are not immediate. Students and teachers alike must prize the uniquely precious human gift of abstract thinking. 

Not every problem needs an instant answer, nor does every sentence need technological assistance. Sometimes the questions are more important than the answers. Learning can be hard, and that's a good thing. Instead of removing all difficulties, add new challenges. Educators should not keep AI outside the classroom at all costs, nor to put it everywhere simply because it is available. They should include it where strengthens learning and exclude it where it replaces learning.

The AI Revolution in Education, Part 2: The Response

If educators cannot simply eliminate artificial intelligence from the classroom, how should they approach it? So far, we have devised some practical responses.

1. Start with the mindset that AI is an assistant, not the source of knowledge. Using AI purposefully will make students more responsible for learning. When they obtain information based on their results-driven, informed, and focused prompts, they will see AI as another powerful resource, not as the center of learning. 

2. Teach students to question AI rather than simply use it. Students can compare an AI response with reliable sources, identify errors, challenge its reasoning, or ask why one answer is more convincing than another. This approach brings critical thinking into AI literacy.

3. Recreate assignments. Instead of asking students only for a finished essay, teachers can examine outlines, drafts, revisions, sources, and reflections. The process becomes part of the learning.

These approaches suggest that educators do not necessarily have to choose between AI and no AI. They can instead ask whether a particular use of AI advances the learning objective. That question matters because the appropriate use of AI will differ by age, subject, assignment, and purpose, and a science laboratory, a literature discussion, and a college research paper should not necessarily have the same AI rules.

The essential shift is from asking, "How do we stop students from using AI?" to asking, "What do we want students to learn, and what evidence will show that they learned it?" AI may change the answers to those questions, but it must not eliminate those questions.

The AI Revolution in Education, Part 1: The Problem

Artificial intelligence has created dilemmas for educators with no simple solution. Should schools ban it, permit it, or regulate it? Each choice creates at least six problems:

1. Enhancing learning. If AI writes a student's paper, what has the student learned? Evidence suggests that students recall less of the AI-generated content in their assignments, suggesting they do not study the new information.
2. Legitimizing Writing. If AI can produce a competent essay in seconds, why should students struggle to write one? This question implies that writing may go the way of the slide rule.
3. Equalizing access. If students do not have equal access to technology and sophisticated AI tools, will the have-nots have  the knowledge required to use them effectively? AI can therefore create new educational inequalities, even as it promises greater access to information.
4. Protecting privacy. Might students and teachers enter personal information or student work into systems whose data practices they do not fully understand? UNESCO identifies privacy, human agency, accountability, and equity as important considerations in educational AI.
5. Assigning responsibility. If AI provides a wrong answer, who is accountable for accepting responsibility? This point is no small one because content verification can be untraceable.
6. Engendering relevance. What should education preserve when technology changes what people can do? Answering this question is not only at the heart of education but a major factor for giving people worldwide relevant employment.

AI technology is changing every imaginable industry from dairy to diamonds, from medicine to electricity. The challenge is not simply deciding whether AI belongs in education, but which parts of education should remain unmistakably human.

AI and Education: The Struggle Continues

AI is already reshaping education, and schools cannot simply ban it and return to the old classroom. Recent reporting in the New York Times shows how quickly AI has participated in homework, essays, lesson planning, and classroom routines.
 
The biggest concern is academic honesty. “Student Cheating Is Becoming Impossible to Detect in an A.I. Era” (NY Times, June 18, 2026) explains that AI can help students generate or revise writing instantly, making take-home assignments harder to judge. And AI detectors are becoming less reliable, as AI, whose grammar is typically flawless, can insert predictable grammatical errors to disguise that it created the content. Thus, teachers can miss cheating or wrongly accuse honest students, creating more suspicion and less certainty among educators.

 
In response to this challenge, teachers are redesigning lessons. “Adapting to a New World: Teachers on How A.I. Is Reshaping the Classroom” (NY Times, February 26, 2026) notes that teachers are bringing more writing into the classroom, asking students to describe their writing process and strategy. Others are using AI carefully for brainstorming, feedback, or practice while teaching students to recognize its limits.

 
“This Teacher Has Doubts About A.I. But He Won a Prize Using It” (NY Times, June 17, 2026) tells the story of a New York City teacher who won a prize with help from AI to create history lessons for his students while still having reservations about AI's use in the classroom. Teachers do not have to blindly accept every new tool, but they cannot ignore a technology students will—and should—continue to use. In fact, our very ambivalence should be the fuel to fire new ideas on when and how to use AI in the classroom, office, and boardroom. 

 
The goal should be responsible use: clear policies, better lessons, and practical assignments that teach students the difference between making AI a writing assistant and avoiding due diligence. AI may change how students write and study, but education should still help them think for themselves. 

GenAI Summit Is Coming Soon

Providing financial services that educate the customer is a desired outcome of all banks, but when does that education slide into information overload? How does a financial advisor strike the delicate balance between exuding customer-centered transparency while still maintaining legally required client confidentiality? When does the unyielding due diligence required of financial analysis depart from reasonable flexibility? These questions have been challenging the industry since First Bank opened in 1791 during the George Washington Administration. 

Multiply these concerns by infinity because of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI)! Sure, you can bet your assets that GenAI will be always more efficient, usually more comprehensive, and occasionally more rigorous than the best human researcher. But the problems GenAI poses, from downright refusing information requests to generating hallucinations, or seemingly credible lies, lays a crucible on the industry unlike any other.

The response to these conundrums is not easy, but you've got to start somewhere. A smart launching point would be the all-day AI in Banking Summit, presented by OnCourseLearning, on Wednesday, June 3, from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. During that time, speakers (including me) will deliver six presentations ranging from 30 to 45 minutes over five hours on a wide range of topics merging banking concerns with the powerful, transformative force of GenAI. Do not miss it. You can register here.

Using AI at Each Step of the Writing Process, Part 7: Concerns

The last six posts covered general and specific concerns about depending on AI throughout the writing process. Do I find AI useful to plan, draft, revise, edit, and proofread? Yes. Do I trust AI completely? No. The previous posts explain why. 

In closing this series, I share insights based on AI research in business, law, science, psychology, and medicine to summarize the state of AI in the work world.

Benefits

Undoubtedly, AI provides at least four immediate benefits to users:

• Expanded content. AI possesses an unmatched capacity to capture information on any imaginable topic from a vast range of global databases. A researcher can then ask for AI to organize this data into manageable chunks if it already has not.
• Increased speed. AI retrieves data at a remarkably fast pace that a human being cannot. What takes the savviest researcher hours, days, or weeks to collect takes AI seconds.
• Enhanced quality. AI writes well enough in virtually every orthographic language. This quality check closes the articulation gap between nonnative writers of a language and their more fluent counterparts.
• Broadened scrutiny. AI efficiently uncovers plagiarism. Such a feature is invaluable for teachers, editors, and proprietary businesspeople in assigning original work.

Concerns

Every research article I have read about AI has concluded that the writer must beware of many issues, five of which I mention here:

• Credibility. We may get from AI contrived, imprecise, or unreliable information. Therefore, we must verify content we get from multiple, reliable sources.
• Originality. Nothing from AI is original, and though it provides sources from where it gathered material, it might not be citing the primary source. This task has always been the researcher's job and continues to be. 
• Transparency. Despite AI programmers' best efforts, AI at times does not provide sources, challenging writers to investigate the source material for themselves.
• Accessibility. AI may provide information that is nearly impossible or impractical to trace. This dilemma forces writers to practice the old adage from journalism: When in doubt, leave it out.
• Compliance. While AI has been around for a few years, it is still a new technology that has left a lot of organizations deciding on how to best use it. In some places, using it equates to an unethical breach of company policy, so writers should know the organizational policy. 

As I wrote in "Using AI to Improve Writing Creativity, Productivity, and Quality," writers must remember that they are the boss and AI is just their assistant.

Using AI at Each Step of the Writing Process, Part 5: Editing

The average business or technical writer does not tend toward deep research and practice in rhetorical theory when editing. But those who do not know a sentence from a citrus fruit or a punctuation mark from a pumpkin would do well to ask AI to edit their messages before pressing send.

AI will not let you down when it comes to writing grammatically flawless sentences. It usually knows where periods and commas go, and it can help you to achieve plain language, if that's what you're aiming for. Enough research shows that AI can close the gap between limited English proficient writers and their native English-speaking counterparts. 

But grammatical propriety ain't everything. I wouldn't depend too much on AI for three critical areas of writing: style, tone, and content.

Style. You might prefer writing in a certain style, for instance, exclusively using active or passive voice. If you are an informed writer, you can dictate these stylistic wishes to AI, but you won't get something that seems like your style. 

Tone. While AI is quite good in writing proper sentences, it is weak in determining the proper tone based on your audience and the business situation. You will have to figure that out on your own based on your professional experience and situational awareness.

Content. Whenever I ask AI to edit a passage for me, it overreaches. For instance, I recently asked it to edit a passage for plain language. It changed the word permanent to for a long time. There is a difference in meaning, which AI is still inadequate in detecting. 

You'll have to detemine whether AI is doing the right thing. Only you know what you really want to say. Don't let AI take over the writing situation completely.

Using AI at Each Step of the Writing Process, Part 4: Revising

After drafting a rough copy of a business-critical document for a broad audience, a wise writer would run it through three rewriting steps: revising, editing, and proofreading. In short, when revising, we consider the content itself and the structure. Editing requires us to look at the fluency, clarity, and conciseness of the sentences; the word choice, punctuation, and spelling; and usage rules, such as capitalization, abbreviation, and numeration. During the proofreading step, we search for overlooked errors, such as typographical errors, spacing inconsistencies, and font irregularities. This post focuses on AI's effectiveness in revision.

We hear the word editor and proofreader much more than we hear the word reviser. When I use the word, many people will ask me, "Is there such a word?" It's just as well that we don't use the word much. An editor can edit someone else's manuscript, and the same goes for a proofreader. The fresh eyes of an editor and proofreader can detect opportunities to improve the quality of the language or fix mistakes. But writers should revise because only the writers know what they're trying to get across. They know the story they're trying to tell. Writers should know better than anyone else what information should be deleted, moved, or added to get their point across.

For this reason, I would not recommend AI to skilled writers for revising. They should know the content that goes into their message. For instance, if you were to write an accident investigation, you might think that a chronological approach would work. You would mention the cause of the accident and then the effect, followed by the response and mitigation plan. But skilled writers know the most important pointsto start with are the human and property damage. AI would know all of this, of course, so it would be useful to novice accident investigators. Moreover, most organizations require investigators to use a prescribed template for accidents, so using AI may be pointless.

But AI can give good revision advice if, after writing an internal proposal or evaluation report, you ask it questions like, "Should I delete anything? What should I add? Is the order of ideas all right?" It will give you helpful ideas to consider. As long as you remember that you, not AI, are in charge, you will find it useful during the revision step.

Using AI at Each Step of the Writing Process, Part 3: Drafting

The last post suggested that planning is all about creativity. This post is about drafting, which concerns productivity. Of course, creativity is involved in drafting, but efficient writers know a rough draft is all they need to shape the message to its finished form. Speed is paramount.

A lot can go wrong when using AI during the drafting step of the writing process. You might direct your AI assistant to create a first draft of the complete document based on the plan that it generated and you tweaked, only to get something entirely different, or with little more substance, or with off-point content, or a rearranged story line depending on the words you choose in your prompt. Sometimes AI can kill your forward progress. That's why you should save every version of your document.   

Lessons Learned:

• Master the prompt. Language variables are infinite. The slightest change in a prompt can yield entirely different results than expected. Make note of your prompts to adjust them when you do not get what you want.
• Seek output, not perfection. This tip is a general one regardless of whether you use AI. I subscribe to the adage "less is more," but not during the first draft. Completeness first, conciseness second. Make sure you get all your need for the quality control phase of writing. 
• Provide sufficient context to humanize the message. Create a style that sounds like you, not a machine. Reading aloud your writing, or AI's generated content, will help you gain a fluent voice during the editing step.

You always write the first draft for yourself; you revise, edit, and proofread for your target audience. These quality control steps are the focus of the next three posts.

Using AI at Each Step of the Writing Process, Part 2: Planning

Undoubtedly, AI is a spectacular information giver during the first step of the writing process, planning. It instantaneously provides an overload of content within five seconds of a prompt. "Provide a seven-day itinerary of the Amalfi Coast avoiding the most touristy spots ... Create a list of ideas for a proposal to eliminate the New York City congestion tax ... Generate talking points for an appeal to management for a two-day-a-week remote work schedule ..." I was pleased with AI's results for all these prompts. In each case, I immediately received information in what would have taken me hours or days to gather and organize without AI's help.

But I did not accept any of these collections as comprehensive. Some of the information was irrelevant, excessive, insufficient, vague, unorganized, or premature. In no case was I ready to write a rough draft. Each situation demanded that I plan some more. 

Lessons Learned:

• Determine the reader's concerns. Reflect on what your audience needs to understand your topic or make an informed decision—and by extension, what AI needs to know to give you what you want to write.
• Phrase prompts specifically. For examples, the Amalfi Coast request could have included the time of year and personal interests, the congestion tax proposal could have mentioned the concerns of the New York State governor, and the remote work appeal could have noted the types of affected jobs. 
• Decide on the best structure. AI lays out easily scannable information, but you must choose the structure that works best for your case.

It may be inaccurate to call AI creative; information collector would be a more precise term. Yet its ability to generate loads of content for us so quickly can spark new ideas for us as we review its results. We just need to remember that AI is merely a super-fast assistant, but we are the writer. 

Using AI at Each Step of the Writing Process, Part 1: Overview

Writing has become a lot easier thanks to artificial intelligence. Maybe too easy. Now that I have taught my course Using AI as Your Writing Assistant more once, I have come to realize that it is just one more tool to separate the haves from the have nots. 

In this seven-part series, I will describe how to use and not use AI based on my research, writing, and teaching experiences with this technology. I will cover each step of the writing process to uncover the indisputable benefits and veiled drawbacks of using AI. Throughout this series, I will explain how AI contributed to these posts.

For now, consider how AI is pervasive in the workplace. Recent figures, according to AI, which I believe to be gross understatements, claim:

• 75% of knowledge workers globally use AI at work.
• 21% of all U.S. workers say they do some of their work with AI.
• 74% of content professionals use AI at least weekly.
• 39% of content professionals use AI daily for writing, editing, and creating content.
• 82% of businesses use AI writing tools for content creation in some capacity.
• 61% of employees want AI tools to help them specifically with writing tasks.
• 90% of tech workers are using AI in their job.
• 78% of AI users bring their own AI tools to work without company oversight.

Considering these figures, we need to get on board with using AI to enhance our on-the-job creativity, productivity, and quality. The next posts will show you how.

Watch What You Say to AI

What I might have mistaken for Artificial Intelligence's sense of humor is, in fact, its inability to infer. Wait wait: AI cannot have a sense of humor. What was I thinking? 

Seduced by AI

AI's casual responses to my requests ("Sure thing! . . . Certainly! . . .  Of course!") had me fooled for a moment. I suppose I was like Theodore Twombly, portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix, in the 2013 Spike Jonze film Her, who falls in love with Samantha, his computer's operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, only to feel cheated when he later realizes that thousands of lonely men like him are also infatuated by their own Samantha. The only difference between what was happening to Theodore and me is that is that operating systems will not go away as gracefully as Samantha does. They are here to stay. Happy ending or not?

Two Sides to Everything

The answer to that question depends on your perspective. Every technology offers huge benefits and equally big risks. A car gets you to places faster, but crazy drivers are out there to threaten your life and property. X-rays give our doctors a clear look at our internal maladies, but too much exposure to radiation may leave us with cancer. We now have every bit of essential information about ourselves on a convenient handheld phone, but that device is so easy to lose or be stolen. 

I recently designed a course, Using AI as Your Writing Assistant, with AI's help through each step of the writing process: planning drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. In seconds, it gave me content that would have taken me much more time to create independently. Yet much of it was excessive or irrelevant, and some of it was misinformation, and only an experienced human being would know that its content was lacking in places. This experience made me think about people who are swearing by the perfection of AI. They fail to see that AI is not a content creator but a lightning-fast data regurgitator.

It's on You

The lesson learned is to remember that we are still accountable for what we write. We can't say, "AI made me do it." Remember who's the boss. Here are three tips to stay in charge:

1. Use specific prompts. If you want to write a fundraising letter about a trip to Cooperstown for your son's Little League team trip, don't tell AI, "Write a fundraising letter for my son's Little League team." Even "Write a fundraising letter for my son's Little League team's trip" is not enough. Start with, "Write a fundraising letter for a Little League team's trip to Cooperstown's Major League Baseball Hall of Fame." You'll see better results, but you'll still have an editing job on your hands for greater relevance.

2. Research what you get. When asking AI for hard data, seek multiple sources. Say you want to write about the economy of your region. You prompt AI to provide the local inflation, unemployment, and cost-of-living, and interest rates. Compare what it gives you to what other sources say. I recently compared what AI said was the consumer price index according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics with actual U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. To AI's, credit, it provided multiple sources at the end of its data analysis. But the federal agency itself offered more context. My further research strengthened my knowledge with deeper insights into the economic indicators.

3. Save every copy. In case you're using AI at multiple points in the development of a document, saving every copy as "Draft 1," "Draft 2," and so on will ensure that you don't lose anything. AI can get heavy handed in reviewing work, decimating all you and it had created to that point. If this happens, you'll be able to revert to an earlier draft and abandon AI, or you can start a fresh dialogue with AI with your preferred draft.     

 

Taking these simple steps will ensure you, and not AI, are the master of your destiny.

New AI Webinar and Course Available

I have just added to my catalogue a new two-hour webinar and full-day course, Using AI as Your Writing Assistant. The basis of this program is my article "Using AI to Improve Writing Creativity, Productivity, and Quality," which appeared in ACS Chemical Health & Safety for the American Chemical Society.

The course focuses on these objectives:

• Using artificial intelligence in work-related writing.
• Plan with AI to enhance creativity.
• Draft with AI to increase productivity.
• Revise, edit, and proofread with AI to improve quality.
• Identify ethical implications of AI usage.

I can offer "Using AI" in multiple formats and durations and customize it to the writing of your organization. If this program is a fit for you and your team, you can contact me at Phil@PhilVassallo.com. 

AI As a Writing Assistant, Part 1

Artificial Intelligence does not concern me about losing my job. In fact, AI serves as an excellent assistant. But as I write in "Using AI to Improve Creativity, Productivity, and Quality," we must remember we're the boss. In this and coming posts, I will show you what I mean. 

The content below, in Arial font, emerged from a two-word prompt that I wrote in Google: "writing tips." For decades, I have taught writing in the corporate, government, and academic worlds using precisely the tips that follow. But it's one thing to recite them; it's another to adapt them to the specific audience I am teaching, whether they be college students, junior staffers, or executives. Tone shifts based on who's writing to whom. It's yet another thing to understand the organizational culture in which I am working. Salespeople write differently from engineers, who write differently from accountants, who write differently from scientists, who write differently from IT specialists. And it's far more to see someone's writing on the spot and explain what works and what needs improvement.

Throughout this series, I will refer to AI help and explain some caveats. Here is the 471-word AI response to "writing tips." 

Understanding the Power and Pitfalls of AI in Work-related Writing

If you're looking for ways to enhance the creativity, productivity, and quality of your writing at work, my latest article, in ACS Chemical Health & Safety could prove helpful. Titled "Using AI to Improve Writing Creativity, Productivity, and Quality," this piece dives deep into the transformative role that artificial intelligence (AI) plays in the writing process. While the commentary primarily uses examples from science to make its points, the principles apply to all business and technical writers. 

AI Is Here to Stay

Writers across all disciplines—whether crafting a research paper, developing safety guidelines, or drafting a creative proposal—are under constant pressure to deliver high-quality content quickly. AI offers a groundbreaking solution to these challenges by serving as a digital assistant that enhances your writing, not replaces it. The article explores how AI tools can support writers in three key areas: creativity, productivity, and quality.

Boost Your Creativity

One of the most exciting aspects of using AI in writing is its ability to stimulate creativity. By generating prompts, suggesting alternatives, and providing inspiration from a vast database of language patterns, AI can help you break through writer's block and explore new avenues of expression. The article offers practical examples of how AI can spark your imagination and push the boundaries of your writing.

Enhance Your Productivity

Time is a precious commodity for writers with tight deadlines and precise requirements. AI tools can significantly streamline the writing process by automating repetitive tasks, organizing research, and even drafting initial content. The article outlines how you can leverage AI to maximize your productivity, allowing you to focus on what matters most: your ideas and insights.

Elevate Your Quality

Quality is non-negotiable, especially in fields where clarity and accuracy can have critical implications. AI can assist in refining your writing, ensuring that your final product is polished, coherent, and error-free. We discuss how AI tools can help you revise, edit, and proofread with greater efficiency, making your writing more powerful.

A Practical Guide

The article is not just theoretical—it’s packed with practical advice on integrating AI into your writing routine. Whether you're a seasoned or novice writer, the strategies in "Using AI to Improve Writing Creativity, Productivity, and Quality" will empower you to harness the full potential of AI, leading to better outcomes in less time.

AI Wrote This for Me

I have just finished an article for a science journal about using artificial intelligence (AI) in writing. If you'd read some of my previous posts about AI, you'd know I am a big proponent for using this technology wisely at work. I decided to ask ChatGPT to author this post of WORDS ON THE LINE. I gave it this prompt: "Write an article under 250 words on writing at work." This is the 224-word response it immediately gave me:

The Importance of Writing at Work: A Key to Professional Success

In today’s fast-paced work environment, effective writing skills are more important than ever. Whether it's drafting emails, preparing reports, or creating presentations, the ability to communicate clearly and concisely can significantly impact your professional success.

Writing at work is not just about grammar and spelling; it's about conveying your ideas in a way that is easy for others to understand. Clear writing leads to better decision-making, more efficient collaboration, and fewer misunderstandings. It also reflects your professionalism and attention to detail.

One of the key aspects of writing at work is knowing your audience. Tailoring your message to suit the needs and expectations of your readers can make your communication more impactful. For instance, an email to a colleague might be informal, while a report for upper management should be structured and formal.

Moreover, good writing saves time. Clear and well-organized documents reduce the need for follow-up questions, allowing projects to move forward smoothly. It also enhances your credibility, as well-written documents demonstrate your competence and thoughtfulness.

In conclusion, writing at work is a vital skill that can influence your career trajectory. By focusing on clarity, understanding your audience, and taking the time to refine your writing, you can improve your communication, build stronger professional relationships, and achieve greater success in your career.

I then gave it an additional prompt: "Rewrite the article to include research." ChatGPT yielded this 288-word response in seconds:

The Importance of Writing at Work: A Key to Professional Success

In today’s fast-paced work environment, effective writing skills are crucial, and research supports their impact on professional success. Studies show that clear and concise communication can significantly enhance workplace efficiency and collaboration. According to a report by Grammarly Business, teams that prioritize strong writing skills are 4.2 times more likely to achieve their goals and complete projects on time.

Writing at work involves more than just correct grammar and spelling; it's about conveying ideas in a way that is easily understood by others. Research from the Harvard Business Review highlights that clear writing leads to better decision-making and reduces the risk of misunderstandings, which can save both time and resources. This is particularly important in email communication, which is often cited as a major source of workplace stress due to poorly written or ambiguous messages.

Understanding your audience is another critical aspect of workplace writing. A study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that 73% of employers prioritize communication skills when hiring, emphasizing the need to tailor your message to suit the reader’s needs and expectations. For instance, a casual email to a colleague may require a different tone and structure than a formal report for upper management.

Good writing also enhances credibility. The Project Management Institute (PMI) reports that 56% of failed projects can be traced back to poor communication. Well-written documents demonstrate competence and professionalism, fostering trust and confidence among colleagues and clients.

In conclusion, writing at work is a vital skill, underscored by research as essential for career success. By focusing on clarity, audience awareness, and attention to detail, professionals can improve communication, strengthen relationships, and contribute to organizational success.

Did that useless "In conclusion" in the last paragraph bother me! And I was not pleased with the increased word count. So I made one final request: "Drop unnecessary transitions and keep it under 250 words." ChatGPT delivered this 222-word third draft:

The Importance of Writing at Work: A Key to Professional Success

Effective writing skills are crucial in today’s work environment, with research highlighting their impact on professional success. A report by Grammarly Business shows that teams with strong writing skills are 4.2 times more likely to achieve goals and complete projects on time.

Writing at work is about more than correct grammar; it’s about conveying ideas clearly. The Harvard Business Review notes that clear writing improves decision-making and reduces misunderstandings, saving time and resources. This is vital in email communication, where poorly written messages are a major source of workplace stress.

Understanding your audience is also critical. A study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) found that 73% of employers prioritize communication skills when hiring, emphasizing the need to tailor messages to the reader’s needs. An email to a colleague may require a different tone than a formal report for management.

Good writing enhances credibility. The Project Management Institute (PMI) reports that 56% of failed projects can be traced back to poor communication. Well-written documents demonstrate competence and professionalism, building trust among colleagues and clients.

Writing at work is a vital skill, supported by research as essential for career success. By focusing on clarity, audience awareness, and detail, professionals can improve communication, strengthen relationships, and contribute to organizational success.

You'll have to decide whether the article is helpful, but I'm just sayin'.

On the Value of Writing Well

Will artificial intelligence (AI) eliminate the need to write well independently? I think not, and I'm glad that Frank Bruni, agrees with me in his op-ed piece "Our Semicolons, Ourselves" in the December 21, 2023 issue of The New York Times. Bruni makes the powerful point that crafting an excellent sentence, paragraph, and essay leads to deep sense of accomplishment for the writer and a powerful intellectual experience for the reader. 

I do believe that AI serves as a fine kickstart for generating ideas, a good tool for producing sentences quickly, and perhaps an indispensable resource for improving quality. But being in command as a writer—doing the work of researching topics, assessing content, taking notes, composing rough drafts, reviewing structure and style—helps students of any major and businesspeople of any profession. Bruni goes a long way toward proving this point in his essay.

Excellent Case Study on AI

For a captivating case study on using AI to write successfully, read "Confessions of a Viral AI Writer," a fascinating, detailed essay by Vauhini Vara in the October 2023 issue of Wired Magazine. The author explains how refining her prompts in ChatGPT enabled her to write a published story in 2021 that "quickly went viral." 

Vara does not end there. She discusses the downside of the turgid, politically correct "AP English" and "corporate style" that AI programs generate when it comes to poetry and fiction. Her concluding thoughts on the impact of AI on writing, reading, culture, and society. This 4,600-word article shows that AI is a revolutionary and inevitable way of writing.

Another AI Endorsement

Are you thinking about using AI for business writing but are not sure how to deploy it? A good starting point might be to read "Successful Business Authors Share Tips for Using AI in Writing" by Josh Bernoff for Ragan PR Daily. In a three-minute read, you will get accurate insights into using ChatGPT as a writing aid to break writer's block, generate ideas, organize content, and check grammar. Bernoff provides the caveats as well.

We all need to get on board with this technology, guardedly, because it increases composition speed exponentially with solid structure and sound syntax.